Disparities in primary and emergency health care among “off-reserve” Indigenous females compared with non-Indigenous females aged 15–55 years in Canada
BACKGROUND: Access to primary care protects the reproductive and non-reproductive health of females. We aimed to quantify health care disparities among “off-reserve” First Nations, Métis and Inuit females, compared with non-Indigenous females of reproductive age. METHODS: We used population-based da...
Published in: | Canadian Medical Association Journal |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
CMA Impact Inc.
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10462408/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37640405 https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.221407 |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:10462408 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:10462408 2023-10-01T03:55:58+02:00 Disparities in primary and emergency health care among “off-reserve” Indigenous females compared with non-Indigenous females aged 15–55 years in Canada Srugo, Sebastian A. Ricci, Christina Leason, Jennifer Jiang, Ying Luo, Wei Nelson, Chantal 2023-08-28 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10462408/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37640405 https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.221407 en eng CMA Impact Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10462408/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37640405 http://dx.doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.221407 © 2023 CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original publication is properly cited, the use is noncommercial (i.e., research or educational use), and no modifications or adaptations are made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ CMAJ Research Text 2023 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.221407 2023-09-03T01:15:07Z BACKGROUND: Access to primary care protects the reproductive and non-reproductive health of females. We aimed to quantify health care disparities among “off-reserve” First Nations, Métis and Inuit females, compared with non-Indigenous females of reproductive age. METHODS: We used population-based data from cross-sectional cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey (2015–2020), including 4 months during the COVID-19 pandemic. We included all females aged 15–55 years. We measured health care access, use and unmet needs, and quantified disparities through weighted and age-standardized absolute prevalence differences compared with non-Indigenous females. RESULTS: We included 2902 First Nations, 2345 Métis, 742 Inuit and 74 760 non-Indigenous females of reproductive age, weighted to represent 9.7 million people. Compared with non-Indigenous females, Indigenous females reported poorer health and higher morbidity, yet 4.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.8% to 6.6%) fewer First Nations females and 40.7% (95% CI 34.3% to 47.1%) fewer Inuit females had access to a regular health care provider. Indigenous females waited longer for primary care, more used hospital services for nonurgent care, and fewer had consultations with dental professionals. Accordingly, 3.2% (95% CI 0.3% to 6.1%) more First Nations females and 4.0% (95% CI 0.7% to 7.3%) more Métis females reported unmet needs, especially for mental health (data for Inuit females not reported owing to high variability). INTERPRETATION: During reproductive age, Indigenous females in Canada face many disparities in health care access, use and unmet needs. Solutions aimed at increasing access to primary care are urgently needed to advance health care reconciliation. Text First Nations inuit PubMed Central (PMC) Canada Canadian Medical Association Journal 195 33 E1097 E1111 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Research |
spellingShingle |
Research Srugo, Sebastian A. Ricci, Christina Leason, Jennifer Jiang, Ying Luo, Wei Nelson, Chantal Disparities in primary and emergency health care among “off-reserve” Indigenous females compared with non-Indigenous females aged 15–55 years in Canada |
topic_facet |
Research |
description |
BACKGROUND: Access to primary care protects the reproductive and non-reproductive health of females. We aimed to quantify health care disparities among “off-reserve” First Nations, Métis and Inuit females, compared with non-Indigenous females of reproductive age. METHODS: We used population-based data from cross-sectional cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey (2015–2020), including 4 months during the COVID-19 pandemic. We included all females aged 15–55 years. We measured health care access, use and unmet needs, and quantified disparities through weighted and age-standardized absolute prevalence differences compared with non-Indigenous females. RESULTS: We included 2902 First Nations, 2345 Métis, 742 Inuit and 74 760 non-Indigenous females of reproductive age, weighted to represent 9.7 million people. Compared with non-Indigenous females, Indigenous females reported poorer health and higher morbidity, yet 4.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.8% to 6.6%) fewer First Nations females and 40.7% (95% CI 34.3% to 47.1%) fewer Inuit females had access to a regular health care provider. Indigenous females waited longer for primary care, more used hospital services for nonurgent care, and fewer had consultations with dental professionals. Accordingly, 3.2% (95% CI 0.3% to 6.1%) more First Nations females and 4.0% (95% CI 0.7% to 7.3%) more Métis females reported unmet needs, especially for mental health (data for Inuit females not reported owing to high variability). INTERPRETATION: During reproductive age, Indigenous females in Canada face many disparities in health care access, use and unmet needs. Solutions aimed at increasing access to primary care are urgently needed to advance health care reconciliation. |
format |
Text |
author |
Srugo, Sebastian A. Ricci, Christina Leason, Jennifer Jiang, Ying Luo, Wei Nelson, Chantal |
author_facet |
Srugo, Sebastian A. Ricci, Christina Leason, Jennifer Jiang, Ying Luo, Wei Nelson, Chantal |
author_sort |
Srugo, Sebastian A. |
title |
Disparities in primary and emergency health care among “off-reserve” Indigenous females compared with non-Indigenous females aged 15–55 years in Canada |
title_short |
Disparities in primary and emergency health care among “off-reserve” Indigenous females compared with non-Indigenous females aged 15–55 years in Canada |
title_full |
Disparities in primary and emergency health care among “off-reserve” Indigenous females compared with non-Indigenous females aged 15–55 years in Canada |
title_fullStr |
Disparities in primary and emergency health care among “off-reserve” Indigenous females compared with non-Indigenous females aged 15–55 years in Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Disparities in primary and emergency health care among “off-reserve” Indigenous females compared with non-Indigenous females aged 15–55 years in Canada |
title_sort |
disparities in primary and emergency health care among “off-reserve” indigenous females compared with non-indigenous females aged 15–55 years in canada |
publisher |
CMA Impact Inc. |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10462408/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37640405 https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.221407 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
First Nations inuit |
genre_facet |
First Nations inuit |
op_source |
CMAJ |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10462408/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37640405 http://dx.doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.221407 |
op_rights |
© 2023 CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original publication is properly cited, the use is noncommercial (i.e., research or educational use), and no modifications or adaptations are made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.221407 |
container_title |
Canadian Medical Association Journal |
container_volume |
195 |
container_issue |
33 |
container_start_page |
E1097 |
op_container_end_page |
E1111 |
_version_ |
1778524937375449088 |